Speaking of Bears 



37 



patience and planned to punish the little bruin. The next night, hearing 

 the customary crash outside, he went out with vengeance in his eye. All 

 he could see was the tail end of a bear protruding from a large garbage 

 can. Apparently, bruin was stuck in the 

 can. The ranger was about to take ad 

 vantage of the unique opportunity to 

 spank the bear when the latter got loose 

 from the garbage can and stood up. In 

 stead of the little bear he had expected it 

 was a big fellow six feet tall in his stock 

 ing feet. The ranger immediately aban 

 doned the idea of spanking the bear ! 



This same ranger tells of tracking a 

 mother bear and three cute cubs through 

 the woods for miles, trying to take a pic 

 ture of them. They refused to leave the 

 dark woods in which picture taking was an impossibility. The mother 

 bear preceded her cubs, tearing bark from trees and overturning rotten 

 logs, while the cubs hungrily hunted in the bark and decayed wood for 

 grubs, ants, and other choice morsels of food. Finally she tore the bark 

 off a dead hemlock near the edge of the woods, then hustled her family 

 out into the long grass of the meadow where she and the cubs rolled 

 over and over in the grass. This was just the opportunity the ranger 

 wanted for his picture. Hurrying to the edge of the woods, he took 

 position and focused his camera. He didn't focus long. Out of the 

 hemlock tree trunk, abandoned by the bears, there buzzed a swarm of 

 angry hornets. The bears were rolling to shake off the attacks of the 

 vindictive insects whose home they had wrecked. 



As a rule, bears do not visit camps or cabins when the occupants are 

 about. They have learned that Sagebrushers and racket are closely akin, 

 and in order to avoid the racket they avoid the Sagebrushers as well. 

 The establishment of the bear pits in all of the national parks where 

 bears are common has helped to keep them away from the camps and 

 cabins. A bear's apparent object in life during the summer is to eat 

 enough to make up for the six months of winter when he is fasting, and 

 Mr. Bear knows he can eat a lot more in an eight-hour day if he eats 

 "combination salad" at the bear pits than he can if he nibbles at tidbits 

 stolen from campers. 



"Combination salad" a la bruin is the edible food from the kitchens 

 of the hotels and camps, which is dumped in enormous piles at the pa 

 vilions of the bear pits. Around these pits are built fences to keep the 

 visitors at a safe distance, not so much to protect the people from the 

 bears as to protect the bears from the people. That recalls the remark 



